Plants 10-200 cm. Stems erect to spreading, green when young, fastigiately branched, glabrous, gland-dotted (in pits), resinous . Leaves ascending to spreading; blades linear to narrowly elliptic (usually terete to sulcate adaxially), 10-25 × 0.8-1.5 mm, midnerves obscure to evident, apices usually acute, rarely rounded, sometimes mucronate, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy, gland-dotted (in circular, deep pits), resinous; axillary fascicles of 2-10 leaves, shorter than subtending leaves. Heads in racemiform to paniculiform arrays (1-15 × ca. 8 cm). Peduncles 3-20 mm (leafy or bracteate). Involucres turbinate, 4-6 × 2-5 mm. Phyllaries 15-22 in 3-4 series, tan, ovate to elliptic, 2.5-7 × 0.6-1.5 mm, unequal, outer ± herbaceous, mid and inner mostly chartaceous, midnerves darker, strongly raised, uniform in widths, resinous, (margins membranous, ciliate especially distally) apices erect, acute, abaxial faces glabrous . Ray florets usually 0, rarely 1-2; laminae elliptic, 4-6 × 1-1.5 mm. Disc florets 6-16(-22); corollas 5-6.5 mm. Cypselae tan to purple, 3.5-4 mm (7-8 ribbed), densely hairy; pappi off-white to brown, sometimes reddish, 5-6.5 mm. 2n = 36. Flowering late summer-fall. Open rocky slopes, chaparral and desert scrub; 400-1500 m; Ariz., Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).